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I'm really shaken and upset by these numbers - when I last checked a year ago I was at 6.0 and 98. I've gained weight and exercised less during the pandemic, so I guess it's not surprising that it's gone up.
My doctor says I'm right on the cusp of being diabetic and that I need to lose weight and eat healthier or else I'll get it. The thing is I've been taking Victoza (and then switched to Ozempic) this last year because my doctor was worried about the 6.0 number, yet it still went up. (He wants me to go up on the Ozempic to 1mg which I initially tried but it gave me diarrhea so I went down to 0.5 mg)
At this point would you basically say I have diabetes or can I still reverse this? I'm going to up the Ozembic and now I'm also taking 25 mg of Acarbose before each meal. What else would folks recommend I do?
Also - one thing I'm having a hard time understanding about diabetes is - is it sort of like a switch that once it gets flipped you "have diabetes" and a bunch of stuff happens that is difficult to reverse or is it really more of a spectrum?
Any thoughts would be much appreciated - my life is extremely stressful right now. I have 3 kids with a 4th on the way and my job is long hours and high-pressure. Now adding this to the mix is really hard. Any thoughts or advice people have would be much appreciated.
I'm really shaken and upset by these numbers - when I last checked a year ago I was at 6.0 and 98. I've gained weight and exercised less during the pandemic, so I guess it's not surprising that it's gone up.
My doctor says I'm right on the cusp of being diabetic and that I need to lose weight and eat healthier or else I'll get it. The thing is I've been taking Victoza (and then switched to Ozempic) this last year because my doctor was worried about the 6.0 number, yet it still went up. (He wants me to go up on the Ozempic to 1mg which I initially tried but it gave me diarrhea so I went down to 0.5 mg)
At this point would you basically say I have diabetes or can I still reverse this? I'm going to up the Ozembic and now I'm also taking 25 mg of Acarbose before each meal. What else would folks recommend I do?
Also - one thing I'm having a hard time understanding about diabetes is - is it sort of like a switch that once it gets flipped you "have diabetes" and a bunch of stuff happens that is difficult to reverse or is it really more of a spectrum?
Any thoughts would be much appreciated - my life is extremely stressful right now. I have 3 kids with a 4th on the way and my job is long hours and high-pressure. Now adding this to the mix is really hard. Any thoughts or advice people have would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
Do you have diabetes? The real answer to that is uncertain mainly due to the fact that you are taking glucose lowering medications that has prevented you so far from not superseded A1C and glucose levels needed for diagnostic purposes diabetes. If a diabetic takes medication to control his diabetic glucose levels and achieve good glucose levels does that mean he no longer has diabetes? No, that just means he is a well controlled diabetic. So the answer is we don't know if you are a diabetic or not. The levels you achieved are prediabetic but on medication. We don't know what they would be without medication.
As to the clinical progression and expression of diabetes the A1C level cutoff as far as diabetes was a clinical cutoff that was determined by studying those diabetics who came down with eye diabetic retinopathy and looking at their A1C levels. Diabetic retinopathy is one of the earliest complications seen with diabetes. The levels actually vary within each ethnic group with some groups coming down with retinopathy at lower levels than 6.5% while others coming down with it at higher levels. The caucasian average was 6.5% which is why that value was picked.
Other clinical expressions all boil down to the damage the high glucose does by binding to proteins through out your body. When it comes to blood vessels we already mentioned the eye but one also has the kidney with the small vessels there and often urine protein (micro-albumin) is used to assess that damage. One also has poor wound healing and the immune cells don't work as good with high glucose levels resulting in more infections.
The signs and symptoms a person most notices are the direct effect of high glucose levels that cause an increase in the osmotic pressure and detected by the osmo receptors in your body that creates thirst. the thirst causes a person to drink water which lowers the osmotic pressure in your blood. One also releases glucose in the urine because the glucose is too high to absorb all of it and the spill over goes into the urine. Glucose is osmotically active and so when it goes into the urine then it draws water with it resulting in a person peeing a lot. So thirst and peeing a lot is often seen. Even though the glucose is high in the blood because of poor receptors or reduced receptors the body reacts to the deprived glucose not entering the cells and so some metabolic changes occur resulting in an altered metabolism. More fat is generated and that fat can give a person an increased risk of coronary artery disease.
Good luck and try losing some weight and it will hopefully revert back to well controlled. There is a dichotomy involving diabetics and one does not want a too stringent control of glucose levels as they do more poorly compared to less stringent control with regards to outcome. For diabetics a less than 7% A1C is considered good.
I am not saying any of the meds for type-2 diabetics are bad, not at all.
But the reality is, these meds are mainly covering-up the main issue, which is type-2s cannot eat a significant amount of carbs without having serious issues...........issues that area partially remedied via meds.
At this point would you basically say I have diabetes or can I still reverse this? I'm going to up the Ozembic and now I'm also taking 25 mg of Acarbose before each meal. What else would folks recommend I do?
Lower your carb intake a little bit. Use an app to count your carbs, and however many you're eating daily right now, cut that back a little bit. I can raise and lower my A1c pretty easily just by doing that....carbs go down, A1c goes down...carbs go up, A1c goes up. It's a balancing act for me. I can keep my A1c in the upper 5s that way.
I only take a small dose of metformin, none of those drugs you've mentioned.
As for whether you have diabetes or not, if you reach an A1c of 6.5, they give you an official diabetes diagnosis. At 6.3, you're in the so-called prediabetic zone.
I'm really shaken and upset by these numbers - when I last checked a year ago I was at 6.0 and 98. I've gained weight and exercised less during the pandemic, so I guess it's not surprising that it's gone up.
My doctor says I'm right on the cusp of being diabetic and that I need to lose weight and eat healthier or else I'll get it. The thing is I've been taking Victoza (and then switched to Ozempic) this last year because my doctor was worried about the 6.0 number, yet it still went up. (He wants me to go up on the Ozempic to 1mg which I initially tried but it gave me diarrhea so I went down to 0.5 mg)
At this point would you basically say I have diabetes or can I still reverse this? I'm going to up the Ozembic and now I'm also taking 25 mg of Acarbose before each meal. What else would folks recommend I do?
Also - one thing I'm having a hard time understanding about diabetes is - is it sort of like a switch that once it gets flipped you "have diabetes" and a bunch of stuff happens that is difficult to reverse or is it really more of a spectrum?
Any thoughts would be much appreciated - my life is extremely stressful right now. I have 3 kids with a 4th on the way and my job is long hours and high-pressure. Now adding this to the mix is really hard. Any thoughts or advice people have would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
Diet and lifestyle should be what you are concentrating on. Not medication. Medication treats symptoms, not the cause.
You can avoid it by changing what you eat.
The fasting number is fine, the A1C is borderline prediabetic range just like your doctor told you. Almost full diabetes. From the sound of it, you would have no problem turning it around if you set your mind to it.
At least you recognize the problem and are lucky enough to have realized it before it got worse. Some of us are not so lucky.
I'm so sorry. I didn't notice the name. I read that the OP was expecting another child and went from there. Congratulations to OP and family on the upcoming addition.
I'm so sorry. I didn't notice the name. I read that the OP was expecting another child and went from there. Congratulations to OP and family on the upcoming addition.
Thanks and no worries!
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